By JKNewsMedia
SCORES OF pastors and church leaders from one of China’s largest underground congregations have been detained by the Police over the weekend, relatives and a church spokesperson have said, in what supporters describe as the most substantial action against Christians since 2018.
The detentions, they said, coincided with heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington following recently expanded rare-earth export controls.
Pastor Jin Mingri, founder of the unsanctioned Zion Church, was taken from his home in Beihai on Friday evening, his daughter, Grace Jin, and a church spokesperson, Sean Long, told Reuters.
Long said police questioned more than 150 worshippers in recent months and stepped-up harassment at in-person Sunday services, while around 30 pastors and church members were detained nationwide at the weekend; five of those were later released and about 20 remained in custody, he added.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio publicly condemned the detentions and called for the immediate release of the pastors, according to a statement reported by news agencies.
A detention notice provided to Reuters indicates Jin, 56, is being held at Beihai City No. 2 Detention Centre on suspicion of “illegal use of information networks”, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of seven years.
Supporters fear that the pastors could face charges related to the dissemination of religious material online. “What just happened is part of a new wave of religious persecution this year,” Long said.
Grace Jin expressed concern for her father’s health, noting his history of diabetes and that lawyers had been denied access to meet detained pastors.
Authorities in Beihai could not be reached by telephone for comment, and China’s Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment, Reuters reported.
The detentions follow new rules from China’s principal religion regulator that bar unauthorised online preaching and religious training by clergy and prohibit unspecified forms of “foreign collusion”.
President Xi Jinping has also called for stricter enforcement and the further Sinicisation of religion, the account notes.
Zion Church, established in 2007 after Jin left the state-sanctioned Protestant church, has grown rapidly in recent years, Long said, expanding to about 5,000 regular worshippers across nearly 50 cities.
The congregation increased its reach during the COVID-19 pandemic through Zoom sermons and small gatherings.
The church’s founder, a Peking University graduate who converted to Christianity after witnessing the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, was subject to travel restrictions in 2018 that prevented him from visiting family in the United States, Grace Jin said.
Police closed Zion’s Beijing church building in 2018 as part of an earlier clampdown on prominent house churches.
Earlier this year, Long said, police temporarily detained 11 Zion Church pastors. Supporters and observers quoted by the church argue that the group’s rapid growth and organised network have attracted government scrutiny.
Bob Fu, founder of the Christian NGO ChinaAid, told Reuters that Jin was intercepted and returned to Beihai by dozens of police during a visit to Shanghai last month.
“The key underlying reason is that Zion Church has grown explosively into a well-organised network in recent years, which of course must scare the Communist Party leadership,” Fu said.
The account provided by the church and family according to Reuters, forms the basis of the development.
However, no official charges beyond the detention notice have been disclosed publicly, and Chinese authorities contacted for comment did not respond to requests referenced in the report as noted by the church spokespeople and relatives, as statements cited to officials.
